


revelations in the storm

by boywonder



Category: The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 01:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9360236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boywonder/pseuds/boywonder
Summary: "I had once wished that my heirs would be born in our homeland, but that was not meant to be. But now we can reclaim it. Together."Thorin reveals his earliest plans to Fíli and Kíli in the midst of a snowstorm.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/gifts).



"If you don't calm down, he's never going to let us go with him on one of these trips again." Fíli did his best to sound stern, but he wasn't any good at it. Kíli laughed, unrepentant.

"That's not true. If that was all it took to sway his mind, he wouldn't ask us in the first place." Kíli replied. "Besides. He's never taken us away for more than a night! It must mean he trusts us more! He thinks we're growing up!"

Fíli laughed. "Maybe one of us is."

Kíli was on his brother before Fíli had much time to react, and they both toppled over, wrestling on the floor.

The sound of a throat clearing in the doorway caused them to look up, twin looks of surprise on their faces. 

Thorin stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He wasn't exactly frowning, but he still didn't look amused.

The younger dwarves stood up, all but in unison, offering muttered apologies.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd gotten in an argument over our excursion," he said, his lips tight.

"Of course not! I don't know why you'd think that," Kíli began.

"We don't often argue and mean it," Fíli overlapped.

Thorin held up one hand until his nephews were silent. He chuckled slightly once they were, and instead of offering admonition, offered open arms. "Rascals," he said.

Both of them brightened immediately, and moved into his arms. They were a little enthusiastic, but he was ready for it, and swayed but did not fall.

"I trust you'll be ready in the morning?" he asked.

They offered reassurances. Thorin kissed each of them on the forehead. "Don't stay up too late. It's not a terribly long journey, but the weather may turn on us."

After further reassurances, Thorin disappeared again, leaving the two princes to get to bed as they saw fit. 

Of course, they didn't sleep right away. Fíli had gone off with Thorin for a couple of days, being elder and the heir to their line, but Kíli had only gone for a night, despite having begged to go on longer journeys. Thorin hadn't been forthcoming when they'd asked what had changed now, but ultimately it didn't matter what the _reason_ was. They were both too excited to sleep.

"D'you think we'll actually fight anything out there in the woods?" Kíli asked, rolling onto his side to look at his brother.

Fíli laughed and rolled over as well. "What could there possibly be in the woods? If there were goblins they'd be in the mountains, and no one has seen goblins here since before we were born."

"No, I know, but there are other things. Bears! Wargs! I dunno. What else lives in the woods?"

"Bears? I wouldn't fight a bear if I were you, Kí."

"Not _alone_. But all three of us could certainly get a bear! It's not like it's a _dragon_ or something."

The word "dragon" hung in the air between them for a moment. Of course, they were many years removed from dragons and their danger, but they'd grown up hearing about Smaug and their lost homeland - a birthright they'd both dreamt of but never laid eyes on. 

"Thorin wouldn't ever let us fight a bear," Fíli said, after a moment. Kíli heard what he said, but young as he was, he also heard what Fíli _didn't_ say.

_Thorin won't ever let us fight a dragon._

"Well we might have no choice, you know," Kíli continued on, only slightly more somber than before. "And then we'll just have to take that bear down. You can distract it, and I can go round behind it with my bow. Or higher up, maybe, up a tree or something! And Thorin has that sword of his, he'll surely have seen a bear before. He could probably take a bear down by himself."

"All he has to do is yell at it," Fíli added, sending them both laughing, talk of dragons forgotten. They tried to shush each other, not wishing to draw the attention of Thorin or Dís, though they were only mildly successful.

They talked for awhile longer, speculating somewhat wildly on what they might encounter in the woods or further into the mountains, before finally drifting off into sleep.

* * *

The younger dwarves were predictably a little slow to get going in the morning, but it didn't take long for Kíli to reach his usual level of enthusiasm, and that feeling spread to his brother. Kíli thought that _maybe_ it spread to Thorin, judging from the way he would occasionally actually smile, but he could have been imagining it.

The journey was a bit long, though uneventful, through the forest into another part of the mountains that was familiar to Thorin but unfamiliar to the princes. Thorin was stern and a little distant, despite his earlier (possibly imagined) enthusiasm. Kíli maintained enough enthusiasm for all of them, and Fíli walked a line between them, though closer in mood to his brother than his uncle.

In the afternoon, the sky grew dark with clouds. Not long after, it began to snow. At first, it wasn't too bad, but the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. Thorin's expression darkened with the sky, and he finally led the other two away from the path and into the mountains. There were caves to be found there.

"We'll have to stop here for the evening," he explained, grudgingly.

"Already? But we're not tired. We could go for hours yet, right Fíli?" Kíli started. Fíli hesitated a little, but looked more or less ready to agree, when Thorin held up a hand to stop them.

"The storm will worsen. I've seen its like. We're safer and warmer here. Get a fire on."

The young princes did as asked and built up a fire while Thorin set up the things they'd need to cook and to sleep.

The meal was friendly, though Fíli and Kíli did most of the talking. Thorin seemed distant, still. They both picked up on it, but Fíli was the first to actually remark on it.

"You've been so quiet," he said, staring across the fire at his uncle. 

Kíli looked between them, expectantly. Neither of them said anything, so he chimed in, "This _was_ your idea, wasn't it?"

Thorin glanced at him, then sighed.

"You're right, of course. I've been thinking overmuch. I wanted to get further on before I told you."

"Told us what?" Fíli prodded. "What kind of trip is this supposed to be? You weren't very forthcoming when you asked us."

"I wasn't," Thorin said. He stood, then, surprising both the others, and went to fetch something out of his pack. Fíli and Kíli blinked at each other for a moment, unsure of how to react.

"My sister-sons," Thorin announced, somewhat grandly, as he came back to them. "In a few weeks' time, we will at last begin the journey _home._ "

"A few weeks?" Kíli asked, misunderstanding.

"Home? But we're only hours away from home," Fíli said, his words overlapping with his brother's.

Thorin shook his head and showed them what he'd gotten out of his bag, unfolding it carefully and holding it out.

Heedless of the proximity to the fire, both young dwarves reached for it at the same time. Luckily, Thorin was expecting something like that, and let it go; the folded parchment never touched the flame.

"What is this?" they both asked, looking at it with slight confusion, and turning twin expressions of barely-restrained excitement back to Thorin.

"This is the map that will take us back to Erebor," Thorin said. "This journey I've asked you on is a celebration."

There was no way for the boys to contain their excitement then. Thorin rescued the map from them, though they hardly noticed through their chatter of dragon slaying and treasure. He let them go for a moment, folding the map back up and putting it away again. 

Instead of coming back to the fire, he interrupted Fíli and Kíli by calling them over to him. Though the cave was small, they were nimble enough, and bounded over to him without disturbing the fire.

"I had once wished that my heirs would be born in our homeland, but that was not meant to be. But now we can reclaim it. Together."

"You're really taking us there?!" Kíli said. "Both of us?"

Thorin heard what he hadn't asked; Fíli was Thorin's direct heir, and would be king someday - and now, with this news, would be king of something real, and not in name only, or so was the hope. Kíli was barely younger, but Thorin and Dís both babied him and tried to keep the horrors of the world away from him more than from Fíli.

"Your brother would have insisted, had I asked only him," Thorin nodding. "Your mother won't be pleased, but that's a discussion for another time."

"So where are we going now?" Kíli asked. "Or where were we going?"

"I was - and am - taking you to a meeting with some of my closest friends. Our kin who left the mountain with me many years ago. You'll have met them from time to time, of course."

"You mean where you live when you're not staying with us and Mother?" Fíli continued.

"Yes. I think you're old enough now. Certainly if I'm going to take you across Misty Mountains, I can take you to another of our settlements, can I not?"

He never had before, of course, for whatever reasons. They were both excited, but also awed into silence by this revelation. Their uncle really did see them as grownups! Perhaps as _equals_!

Thorin noticed their uncharacteristic silence, near reverence, and laughed at them.

"You look like Aulë himself has come up from the earth. This is your birthright, as it is mine. It's right that you join the party. Besides, I'd be remiss to leave behind those that I love most in this world."

They both fell into his arms after that. 

The cold reached into the cave with long tendrils, and they eventually retreated when the fire wasn't enough to keep them warm. Thorin had set up the bedrolls together, and they lay more or less in a pile for both warmth and comfort.

Fíli and Kíli weren't as used to journeys, and they hadn't slept hardly at all the night before, so they fell asleep before Thorin did, each curled against him on either side. He looked down at them in the waning firelight. He had spoken truly; there were none that he loved greater than the princes sharing his bed. And soon, he would take them home where they belonged. He pushed away any misgivings he had, for the moment, of taking young and untried dwarves across the wild and into the mountains and forest beyond. He knew of the dangers of dragons, but there was too much falling into place not to undertake the quest. 

He held the boys close to him, and his heart was glad. Their homeland and the Arkenstone were waiting for them to claim them again at last, together.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that this is in keeping with what you were looking for! I'm sorry it wasn't sexier or more romantic, and I hope the relationship aspect is clear enough in their interactions.


End file.
